Bag with almost $50K lost, then found

October 05, 2008|By KEVIN LEININGER The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne)

FORT WAYNE -- Given the recent financial meltdown, you may be tempted to protect your retirement by cashing in your investments, stuffing the money in a sack and carrying it around with you. But do yourself a favor: Read this story first. According to a Fort Wayne Police report, a man named Rene -- I'll withhold the last name to protect the foolish -- had just left the Southtown Centre Wal-Mart with his girlfriend and their child two weeks ago when he remembered he had left the baby's green diaper bag in the shopping cart. But this diaper bag contained more than a few Pampers. It was filled with another kind of green: about $50,000. In cash. Realizing too late he had left the bag in a shopping cart, Rene turned the car around and raced back to the store. But the bag and its precious contents were gone and, much to his dismay if not his surprise, no one had reported finding it. So Wal-Mart officials called police and provided video from the security cameras strategically placed on the building and throughout the parking lot. The resulting images must have filled Rene with the same kind of jump-out-the-window panic that has recently gripped Wall Street. The cameras captured Rene and his family pushing the cart to their Chevrolet Tracker, then driving off -- leaving the bag in the cart. A Fort Wayne man police identified as Wyotha Tatum immediately walked over to the cart, removed the bag and inspected the contents. But, according to police, Tatum never took the bag inside to report his amazing discovery, nor did he flag down Wal-Mart security vehicles patrolling the parking lot. Instead, he simply placed the bag in a white Ford Explorer and walked back to a table set up near the door to collect donations for With Your Own Hands Ministry sponsored by the Body of Christ Seventh-day Adventist Church of Fort Wayne. The ministry makes bookmarks and sells them to raise money for the church, Tatum said. Because Tatum's wife, Amaris, had included her cell-phone number on the solicitation agreement she had signed with the store on the ministry's behalf, the police easily tracked her down and asked what she knew about the missing "diapers." She denied knowing anything at all -- but called police a short while later to say that, yes, her husband had indeed found the bag and was eager to return it. Wyotha Tatum said he and his wife never intended to keep the cash or deceive police. "I didn't tell her about it until later," said Tatum, 63, a retired General Electric Co. employee. "When I saw all that money I just said, 'Wow,' and was enthused by it. I was a little nervous, so I just put it in the car. It was never mine to keep." "We took the diaper bag into custody and transported it to the Detective Bureau," the report stated. "(We) counted the money ... and came up with a total of $45,662.26. It appeared all the IDs were still in the bag." Rene told police he was carrying the cash because he had recently sold a house, and originally told police the bag contained about $30,000 before checking with his girlfriend. And although Rene thought the recovered bag should have contained at least $3,000 more, he told police he trusted them and didn't need to count the money again. He signed a property receipt and left with the cash, IDs and a few baby items -- presumably a very happy and relieved man. Police spokesman Michael Joyner said no charges will be filed. Wyotha Tatum, in fact, figures he did Rene a favor. "If somebody else had found the money, they could have just driven away. But because they had our number, they found us. I thought there might be a reward, but I haven't even had a thank you," said Tatum, who said he returned every dollar he found.